Abandoned house in Louisiana

Fontenette-Bienvenu House, St. Martinville Louisiana

Date added: February 23, 2023 Categories: Louisiana House French Creole

The parish seat of St. Martinville is among Louisiana's oldest communities, having been settled in the eighteenth century and incorporated as a town in 1817. Located at the head of navigation on Bayou Teche, it thrived in the antebellum period due to its status as a major interior port. Despite the town's great age, there are only a limited number of buildings to represent its early development. The town experienced considerable development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and thus its present building stock largely reflects that period. Approximately 20 - 25 buildings survive from the pre-Civil War era. Although this is more than survive in most Louisiana communities, it is a small number when one considers what this bustling town must have looked like in the decades before the Civil War. Collectively, these buildings are immensely important because they represent the town's early patrimony. The most important of them are the few (less than 10) that represent the very earliest architecture (i.e., French Creole and Federal).

The Fontenette-Bienvenu House is very conspicuous among this group, being one of the two or three oldest. Most importantly, it is thought to be the only one to feature a significant collection of pre-Greek Revival woodwork and detailing. Its elaborate Federal mantels are surely unmatched within St. Martinville. Finally, it features brick-between-post construction, which was very unusual in Louisiana settlements outside of New Orleans.

Building Description

The Fontenette-Bienvenu House is a one-and-a-half-story Creole cottage of colombage construction with Federal details. It is located on Main Street near the central church square in the parish seat of St. Martinville. The house was completed in either 1817 or early 1818 for Jacques Fontenette, who died on April 23, 1818. His succession, opened May 4, 1818, refers to "a fine house, newly constructed" being located on the property in question. The house has been owned since the 1850s by the Bienvenu family. Despite the twentieth century alterations and a fire, the Fontenette-Bienvenu House easily retains its architectural identity and enough character-defining elements to establish its architectural significance.

The plan consists of two front rooms of equal size with a pair of unequal-sized cabinets behind with a long room between. The principal story features brick-between-post construction with French angle braces at the corners. The second story is reached directly from the broad front gallery by a steep central staircase that ascends between the two front rooms to the finished attic. The placement of the stair in this manner is most unusual for a Creole house in Louisiana.

A large brick chimney is set behind the previously mentioned central staircase and services fireplaces in the two front rooms. These feature an identical pair of elaborate Federal mantels with decoratively cut pilasters, a three-panel entablature and intricate systems of built-up moldings forming the shelves. Also Federal, at least in spirit, is the overall delicacy of the molded window and door surrounds and the raised panels on the distinctive eight-panel interior doors.

Certain other features attest to the house's early date. These include 9 over 6 sash windows with fixed upper sashes and double-leaf French doors on the facade with ten lights per leaf. Other noteworthy features include the ceilings with exposed beaded beams and beaded ceiling boards and the baseboards which also feature a decorative bead.

The rear now has a protruding wing which gives the house an overall "T" shape. This appears to have been a free-standing structure (c. 1840) with a temple front that was moved up to the rear of the house. Surviving pilasters on its flush board facade indicate its original Greek Revival style. The uneven spacing of the beams in this addition and the irregular siding indicate that this building, or possibly part of a building, was rather casually attached to the rear of the house. Evidently, when this building was attached, the rear wall in the old rear central room was removed to create a single large space.

Several of the original windows have been replaced with turn-of-the-century two-over-two sash windows. In addition, hinge marks indicate that a number of the doors have been moved around. Also, a long, shallow closet has been installed in the rear wing along a side wall. Finally, the front gallery columns have been replaced numerous times. Currently one old, but not original, column survives and the porch floor is missing. Architectural evidence indicates that originally there were eight equally spaced posts across the front gallery.

A fire in the 1990s almost completely destroyed the central staircase and charred approximately one-third of the beams in the attic. It also damaged the beams of the side walls that flank the central staircase.